physics.soc-ph papers | Gist.Science

Physics — Soc-Ph explores the fascinating intersection where mathematical laws meet human behavior, using the rigorous tools of physics to understand social dynamics. From modeling the spread of ideas and financial markets to analyzing crowd movements and network connections, this field treats societies as complex systems governed by underlying patterns. It bridges the gap between hard science and the social world, offering fresh perspectives on how we interact, organize, and evolve together.

Gist.Science curates the latest preprints from arXiv in this category, ensuring you stay ahead of emerging research. We process every new submission to provide both accessible plain-language summaries for general readers and detailed technical overviews for experts. This dual approach makes cutting-edge discoveries in sociophysics understandable without sacrificing scientific depth. Below are the latest papers from this rapidly growing field, ready for you to explore.

🔬 physics

Do Railway Commuters Exhibit Consistent Route Choice Rationality Across Different Contexts and Time? Evidence from Tokyo metropolitan Commutes

By analyzing one year of smartphone data from over one million Tokyo commuters and applying a statistical physics framework to the Multinomial Logit model, this study reveals that while aggregate railway route choices exhibit temporal stability, significant origin-destination heterogeneity exists, characterized by a bimodal split in preferences that underscores the need for more sophisticated transfer modeling.

Yixuan Y Zheng, Hideki Takayasu, Misako Takayasu2026-08-14

🌀 nonlinear sciences

Empathy Modeling in Active Inference Agents for Perspective-Taking and Alignment

This paper introduces an active inference framework that separates behavior prediction from prosocial valuation to demonstrate that while symmetric other-regarding concern stabilizes mutual cooperation in the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, asymmetric empathy renders agents vulnerable to exploitation, thereby distinguishing prediction, planning, and valuation as distinct yet interacting components of social agency.

Mahault Albarracin, Hongju Pae, Philip Wilson, Anna Mikeda, Alejandro Jimenez-Rodriguez, Sanjeev V. Namjoshi, Harshil Sh (…)2026-08-14

🧬 biology

Trophic structure predicts seizure propagation in brain network models

This study demonstrates that specific structural properties of directed brain networks, particularly trophic coherence and spectral radius, significantly predict seizure propensity, suggesting that the brain's overall directionality of information processing may influence the likelihood of epileptic seizures.

Peter Kissack, Catherine Drysdale, Samuel Johnson2026-08-14

🔬 physics

Open versioned aggregates of the FAA National Wildlife Strike Database (1990-2026): conditional damage rates by animal family, airframe, and airport

This paper presents open, versioned aggregates of the FAA National Wildlife Strike Database (1990–2026) that reveal how conditional damage rates vary significantly by animal family, aircraft, and airport, highlighting that high strike volumes do not necessarily correlate with high damage risks.

Denys Kolomiiets2026-08-14

🌀 nonlinear sciences

Dimension Reduction of Higher-Order Dynamical Networks

This paper introduces a one-dimensional reduction framework for dynamical systems on networks with purely higher-order interactions, demonstrating that the effective state of the system can be accurately captured by a single variable representing an effective interaction strength, provided that node states are sufficiently homogeneous.

Amitosh Tiwari, Chittaranjan Hens, Prosenjit Kundu2026-08-14

🌀 nonlinear sciences

Beyond persuasion: Mobile electoral interfaces in polarized societies

This paper proposes a minimal dynamical model demonstrating that in polarized societies, aggregate electoral outcomes are driven not by direct persuasion between stable partisan blocs, but by the fluctuations and allocation of a mobile voter interface governed by rejection asymmetries.

Nuno Crokidakis, Celia Anteneodo2026-08-14

🔭 astrophysics

Which is the best day of the week to submit to arXiv:astro-ph?

This study analyzes citation data for astronomy papers published between 2020 and 2023 to reveal that while the specific weekday of submission among Monday through Friday has no significant impact on citations, papers submitted on weekends (which appear in the Monday listing) receive significantly fewer citations than those submitted on weekdays.

Chirag Sharma, Shantanu Desai2026-08-13

🔬 physics

Unlocking CCUS-Ready Coal Power Investments: A Spatial Real Options Approach

This study proposes a Spatial Real Options framework to evaluate CCUS-ready coal investments in China, revealing that while the investable window for conventional coal closes by the mid-2040s, CCUS integration can extend viability—particularly for oil-reservoir storage at short distances—provided that operational incentives like generation-hour compensation are prioritized over capital subsidies.

Yun-Long Zhang, Jia-Ning Kang, Lan-Cui Liu, Yi-Zhuo Ji, Song Peng, Yi-Ming Wei2026-08-13

🔬 physics

Technology interactions reshape the economics of China's coal power decarbonization

This study develops an interaction-aware optimization framework for China's 1,885 coal-fired power plants, revealing that accounting for synergies between energy conservation, biomass co-firing, and carbon capture significantly reshapes cost-optimal decarbonization portfolios and marginal abatement costs, ultimately enabling a pathway to net-negative emissions.

Yun-Long Zhang, Jia-Ning Kang, Xiaoming Kan, Lan-Cui Liu, Zhimin Huang, Song Peng, Biying Yu, Yi-Ming Wei2026-08-13

💰 quantitative finance

Sectoral inter-dependencies drive the loss of structural balance in signed financial networks

This paper analyzes S&P 500 data using signed network theory to demonstrate that structural imbalance in financial markets during systemic risk primarily stems from inter-sectoral conflicts rather than intra-sectoral ones, with global polarization levels significantly driven by macroeconomic factors like supply chain disruptions and inflation uncertainty.

Kartik Dahake, Abhijit Chakraborty2026-08-13